Impostor Syndrome
by The Inimitable Enigma Cypher
Summary: This is what happens when a certain Lady Octopus finds out about a futuristic impostor and takes revenge. Based partially on Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions and partly on my own reaction to... just read the explanation inside. Don't like? Don't flame me.
1. The First Encounter

_**(A/N: **__This is based mostly off of my reaction to last year's video game, "Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions", and the realization that there was an impostor Lady Octopus in the Spider-man 2099 universe. This was my way to retaliate, because I was not impressed. Don't like? Don't read.)_

**Imposter Syndrome - Part One: The First Encounter**  
_By The Inimitable Enigma Cypher_

_New York City, 2010…_

"I don't _believe_ this! Are you absolutely certain that this is true?"

"This coming from Dr. Carolyn Trainer, as she paced in her lair, angered by news that an associate had just called her to inform her of.

"I'm dead certain!" the informant, known only as "Fusion", replied, looking at her computer screen. "It says here there's another Lady Octopus who may be seeking to complete with you!"

"Well, if what you're saying is true, it is certainly intolerable that someone has the audacity to even _attempt_ to compete with me!" Carolyn shouted, slamming a mechanical tentacle into a nearby desk, smashing it to splinters.

"It gets worse!" Fusion continued, scrolling down the page. "It says here that she has the ability to uplink with technology much like you can, and that her idol is none other than your own!"

For the next few seconds, the only sound Fusion heard was something that sounded suspiciously like the phone being repeatedly slammed against a hard surface, before Carolyn spoke, her voice undercut with rage.

"Who is she? Where is her base of operations?"

"It says here that she operates in the New York City of 2099 and that her name is Selena Patel or something like that."

"The future?" Carolyn asked. "Well, future or not, I intend to ensure that whatever future she once had will no longer apply to her. I'm going to FINISH HER!" With that, she slammed the phone down on the cradle, trying to think. How was she to defeat an imposter of herself that resided in the future?

_There has to be a way, she thought. Anything I can do to get to the future… this third-rate imposter has to be dealt with, and fast._

She took a seat at her lab bench, resting her head on her closed fist. Thinking. _Perhaps I may not be able to transport myself to the future, but I may be able to find someone who can bring her here, where she will be out of her element, out of her time, which will give me the distinct advantage._

Picking up the phone again, she punched in the number of someone she had once had a business association with, and whom she knew would be able to help her.

"Hello? This is Trainer. I believe you once told me you owed me a favor?"

xxxxx

_New York City, 2099…_

Selena Patel was not happy. Her latest genetics experiment had not gone as planned and would prove to set her back for weeks. She was preparing to leave for the night when her lab assistant came in the room with a message.

"Yeah, we got this call a few minutes ago, kind of mysterious." He said, handing her a slip of paper. "He said you need to call him back immediately.

"Yes, yes, I'll get to that." Selena snapped, taking the slip of paper with one tentacle claw, walking over to the phone on her desk. Punching in the number, she listened to the ringing.

It all happened in an instant. Her lab assistant watched dumbfounded as she disappeared, her body breaking down into what looked like pixels in an old computer monitor. He ran from the room.

xxxxx

_New York City, 2010…_

Selena rematerialized in mid-air, falling face-first to the hard metal floor beneath her.

"I'm going to feel that in the morning." She muttered, putting her hand to her nose as she pushed herself up onto one elbow, her hand to her nose.

Suddenly, she was struck in the back of the neck by something hard, sending her sprawling back on her face.

"What the hell?"

"So glad we could have this little meeting." said a cold voice from behind her. She rolled over to find a tall, purple-haired figure standing over her, glaring, four mechanical arms writhing in the air behind her restlessly, as if affected by their master's obvious emotional state.

_She looks familiar._ Selena thought, getting to her hands and knees, looking up. _Have I seen her somewhere?_

"Who are you supposed to be? And _where_ in the _hell_ am I?"

"You are out of your time, Doctor." The figure answered, snatching her up by the collar of her lab coat, pinning her to the wall. "Way out of your time."

"Yeah, O.K. I traveled back in time. Sure." was the sarcastic reply. The wrong reply.

"Don't take that tone with me!" the purple-haired figure shouted, throwing her across the room, causing Selena to crash into the far wall with a THUD. "You, of all people, will not talk to me like that! You, of _all_ _people_, who took it upon yourself to impersonate me!"

Selena just laid there on the floor for a moment, her hand to her head, dazed, before the answer dawned on her.

"Shit. You're Carolyn Trainer." She replied, looking away. She remembered now, looking through an old book on her idol, Dr. Octavius, that this woman was mentioned several times. It _had_ to be her. "Just how far back in time am I, then?"

"Far enough to be completely out of your element." Carolyn replied, walking over to her. From Selena's angle, the angry purple-haired woman towered over her. "Look closely at yourself. Do you notice something missing?"

Selena thought for a moment, before realizing that her own actuators, which she had modeled on both of their respective idol's, were missing.

"Oh, _shit."_ she muttered, realizing how much trouble she was in. "They didn't transfer when I did, did they?"

"Of course not." Carolyn said, rolling her eyes. "It's technology from the future, you imbecile. They are more than likely too technologically-advanced to be found in this time. If you were any kind of genius, you would have surmised this on your own."

Selena's only reply to this was to slam her all-too-mortal fist onto the floor.

"So, what now? You kill me or something?"

"Perhaps." Carolyn answered, turning her back on the imposter, walking over to a computer across the room. One actuator kept an eye on Selena as their master typed a few commands into the keyboard. "For now, I think I'll keep you locked in this room over here." Even as she said that, a door hissed open pneumatically, revealing a windowless chamber that appeared to be inescapable. "I'm sure I can find some kind of use for a third-rate imposter like you."

"Third-rate!" Selena shouted, obviously forgetting that she was unarmed. "Who are you calling-"

She was taken completely by surprise when Carolyn snatched her up once more with an actuator, without even turning around, and drew her close.

"I believe I was talking to you, Patel." She said, finally turning around, backhanding Selena across the jaw roughly. "And if you have any hope of surviving through the days to come, I would take this opportunity to _silence yourself."_ With those final words, Carolyn threw Selena in the prison chamber and slammed the door shut, leaving her captive to pound on the door feebly.

_-To be continued…_


	2. Fun With Virtual Reality

**Imposter Syndrome, Part Two: Fun With Virtual Reality**

The door to the prison chamber opened nearly eighteen hours later. The light nearly blinded Selena, and she had to blink several times to clear her vision, before catching sight of the purple-haired figure standing in the doorway.

"Sleep well?" Carolyn asked mockingly, full well knowing what the answer to that question was; one look at her captive would reveal the red-rimmed eyes, the exhausted look that lined her face. That, and of course the video camera in the corner that had been recording her every move.

"You damn well know what the answer to that question is." Selena spat, glaring up at her captor. "You've likely been watching me all night!"

"No, I have better things to do with my life than sit around and watch the captive all night." was the reply. "No, I was planning what I'm going to do with you. It has to be something deserving of what you've done, after all."

"I thought you were dead!" Selena shouted, not yet making a move to get up from the corner of the room in which she laid. "I reside almost ninety years in your future!"

"This is, of course, no excuse for what you've done." Carolyn said, taking a few steps towards her captive. "One way or another, this was going to catch up to you."

"Catch up with me? You are dead in my time!" Selena screamed, getting to her feet. "You expected me to believe that time travel was real?"

"I _expect you_ to stop raising your voice to me." Carolyn retorted, in the same tone of voice as before; there wasn't even the slightest indication that she was annoyed.

"Oh, so you're _commanding_ me now?"

"No, that was merely a suggestion." came the purple-haired woman's reply as she pulled a small remote out of the pocket of her lab coat. She held it up. "Now _this_ might be a command. Sit back down."

"Screw you!"

Carolyn merely shrugged one shoulder and pressed the button on the remote. Instantly, Selena was struck down with a bolt of lightning, fired like a projectile weapon from a spot right above the video camera.

"Are you willing to take commands now?" Carolyn asked, twirling the remote in her hand. "Or must I turn up the voltage a little?"

"How… the hell… did you do that?" Selena asked weakly, struggling to raise herself up onto one elbow.

Carolyn did not answer, instead opting to walk out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving Selena alone and in the dark.

Over in a corner of the room, Fusion sat at one of the lab benches, typing on a laptop. She said, "I still don't understand why you won't let me film this and put it online. This would be frickin' hilarious."

"Because, if it was to be filmed and put online, it would be all the more evidence to be used against me in the event that the police catch up with me."

"What are the chances of them catching you?" Fusion asked, putting her feet up on the lab bench. "Only I know that you're hiding out here, and I'm not talking, am I?"

"It's simply a chance I cannot take."

"Whatever you say." Fusion said, dropping the subject. "I'm just saying it's a lot faster than having me sit here and type up everything that's happening."

"At least if you're doing that, nobody will believe it's actually true." was Carolyn's reply as she walked into her office. "Now I'm going to go and plan what to do with the two-bit future hack, so I do not want to be disturbed." Without another word spoken, she slammed the door behind her.

xxxxx

Several hours later, Carolyn threw open the door to the prison chamber where Selena still laid, shielding her eyes from the sudden light.

"You're coming with me." Was all she said, snatching Selena up by the collar of the lab coat she still wore, lifting her into the air.

"Like I have much of a choice…" Selena muttered as she looked around helplessly, wondering just what the purple-haired figure had in mind for her.

Before long, the two of them entered a strange room; it was massive, completely empty, the walls painted white, with the exception of a window on one side that looked in on what looked like a control room.

Carolyn threw Selena unceremoniously to the floor, before leaving the room. She reappeared several seconds later in the control room, pressing a button on the wall. Selena jumped as her captor's voice came over a recessed intercom.

"Looks like you get to play guinea pig to my latest experiment."

"And what experiment would that be?" Selena asked, betraying only the slightest hint of the fear that had overtaken her.

Carolyn did not reply as she began typing commands into a control panel, and all of a sudden the entire landscape of the room that Selena had been thrown into changed; no longer was it an all-white chamber, but it appeared to be the inside of a cage of hungry tigers. All of which were looking at her with a hungry look in their eyes.

"Trainer, are you _out_ of your freaking _mind!"_ Selena screamed as she backed away from the tigers, not knowing that they were merely virtual reality constructs; for the moment, entirely harmless.

"Perhaps." was all Carolyn said as she typed several more commands, and the virtual tigers charged towards Selena, who screamed in terror. "But at least I'm not the one who's locked in there with them."

Selena could not respond as she ran, screaming, away from the tigers that were hot on her heels. One of them pounced, and Selena thought this was her end.

Suddenly the landscape of the room changed again, into a war zone, with what appeared to be thousands of armed soldiers, all aiming at her. Selena dropped to the ground, her hands over her head.

"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT!" she howled. Meanwhile, Carolyn was in the control room, a satisfied smirk across her face. Not only did her virtual reality wave generator appear to be working perfectly, but she got the satisfaction of seeing the two-bit impostor cowering for her life.

The landscape changed once more into a zombie-infested New York, with dozens of the brain-craving monsters lumbering towards Selena, who screamed and ran away, finally coming to the very corner of the room, where she ducked down and threw her hands over her head once more.

"LET ME OUT OF THIS INSANITY!" she screamed. "LETMEOUT**ICAN'TTAKETHISAMYMORE!"**

In the control room, Carolyn nodded. The simulations definitely had an effect. She typed in one final command and the room reverted to a white-walled chamber. Selena laid on the floor, wide-eyed and trembling, and appeared to not have even noticed when Carolyn lifted her into the air with one metallic arm and hauled her out of the room.

"Out of your mind…" Selena muttered, just loud enough for Carolyn to hear. "Completely out of your mind…"

"Well, nobody ever accused me of sanity." was Carolyn's retort as she threw Selena back into the prison chamber. "Expect to be subjected to another experiment later. I've got several of them that I could use you for."

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" Selena screamed, desperate. "H-How can you even consider this! I am nobody's guinea pig!"

"You are now."

Without further comment, Carolyn slammed the door shut, ignoring Selena's screaming.

"I hope you got that documented." she said aloud, knowing that Fusion was sitting several feet behind her, still typing.

"I got every blasted second of it."

_-To be continued…_


End file.
